Award IV, Innovation in Teaching Science Teachers, recognizes the best paper submitted for nomination and presented at the ASTE 2007 conference that seeks to encourage the development and dissemination of new designs for courses and curricula, new instructional methods or approaches, and other types of innovations in the pre- or in-service education of teachers of science.

 The ASTE Awards Committee had a tie this year.

Award IV
Best Paper on Innovation in Teaching Science Teachers
Sonya Martin and Kathryn Scantlebury

The author of the first of the two best papers nominated and presented at the ASTE 2007 conference are Dr. Sonya N. Martin of Drexel University and Dr. Kathryn Scantlebury of University of Delaware, entitled, More Than a Conversation: Using Cogenerative Dialogues in the Professional Development of High School Chemistry Teachers. 

Dr. Sonya N. Martin is Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Drexel University. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology and neuroscience from Bryn Mawr College. She taught science at both the elementary and secondary level in the Philadelphia public school district for five years, during which time she earned two graduate degrees in Elementary Education and Chemistry Education from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her doctorate through Curtin University of Technology while serving as a teacher-researcher utilizing cogenerative dialogues and video analysis to examine sociocultural interactions in her own tenth grade chemistry classroom. Her recent research explores the use of cogenerative dialogues and video analysis as tools for evaluating teacher education programs and for assisting K-12 school administrators to better facilitate distributed leadership among classroom teachers in an effort to support science education reform at the local level. Dr. Martin has authored research chapters and articles in journals including Journal of Research in Science Teaching and Cultural Studies of Science Education. She is currently co-editing a book on feminist perspectives in science education and she serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Science Teacher Education, Research in Science Education, and Cultural Studies of Science Education.

 Dr. Kathryn Scantlebury is Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Coordinator for Secondary Science Education in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware.

Several years ago, Dr. Scantlebury introduced cogenerative dialogues into the science education program at the University of Delaware and her graduate chemistry education course at the University of Pennsylvania.

Award IV
Best Paper on Innovation in Teaching Science Teachers
Christopher Emdin

The author of second best paper for Award IV is Dr. Christopher Emdin, of Teachers College, Columbia University, for his paper from the ASTE Conference 2007, Expanding the Ways in Which Urban Students Participate in Science Education: Rituals, Transactions, and Fundamental Interactions

Dr. Emdin is Assistant Professor of Science Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Emdin’s advanced degrees include a Ph.D. in Urban Education with a concentration in Mathematics, Science and Technology and M.S. in Natural Sciences from the Graduate Center, City College of New York. His undergraduate degrees are in Physical Anthropology, Biology, and Chemistry. Chris has been an instructor at both the undergraduate and graduate levels of college, coordinator of a university science education program, middle school science and mathematics teacher, high school physics and chemistry teacher, and chair of science departments in two New York City public schools. The constellation of his experiences and scholarly interests in urban and science education also include his role as co-author on the proposal to open the Marie Curie School in the Bronx, New York (funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and researcher on many NSF-funded research projects in mathematics and science education. His research focuses on issues of race, class, diversity, and equity in urban science and mathematics classrooms, the use of new theoretical frameworks to transform science education, and urban science education reform.